The Future of EU Accession

In general all of this is really starting to worry me. I had a couple of posts recently on Serbia's plight on demography matters (and here) and obviously the knock-on impacts of many future Iraq scenarios are not pleasant to contemplate, so really expansion wearying at this key moment in time could have quite important consequences:

EU to start closing doors to the east

European Union leaders will on Friday evening toughen up the rules on eastward expansion of the club, in an admission that public opinion in the west has turned sharply against taking in new members.

The rigorous new EU membership rules will be a dispiriting signal to countries such as Turkey, Serbia and Bosnia, which already believe their road to accession is littered with obstacles. However, a two-day European summit in Brussels will confirm that the Union will honour its offer of membership to Turkey and the countries of the western Balkans when they are ready – and if the EU is ready to take them in.